Whack Out on Willie Moretti
By Thom L. Jones
He went to church every Sunday in Deal, New Jersey, with his wife and three daughters. The kids in the neighbourhood called him 'cump.' He had a home there on five acres, where he raised prize ducks, that was valued at $400,000. By to-days standards, many millions. He was short and squat with thinning hair, brushed straight back and whenever you see a photo of him, he's wearing the most hideous, hand-painted silk ties.
One of a kind was Willie (right).
Then one day, in October 1951, he arranged to have lunch with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, but before he could keep that appointment, he had another, with four guys in Joe's Elbow Room at 793 Palisades Avenue in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. Dino and Jerry never got to sit with the man that day. His other friends shot him a number of times and left him sprawled on his back, on the floor, dead and bleeding, sporting another awful tie.
He was a best friend to Frank Costello, who had been his best man at his wedding and a godfather to at least one of his children, led a gang of really tough guys, 60 at least, in the Garden State, with a lock on gambling that had made him and Frank very rich, was allegedly the under boss of the mob Frank controlled, now called the Genovese Family, never carried less than $2000 in his money roll, drove the best cars money could buy.
So why did it all go horribly wrong that crisp, clean morning of October 4th?
There was a rumour going around that he'd gone a little off his mind, more than a little really, because of the damage done by syphilis that he'd contacted in his younger days, and that he had to be put down before he did irreparable damage to Cosa Nostra, babbling away at the Kefauver Hearings, telling reporters little tit-bits of information, that kept stirring the pot on organized crime in New Jersey. That wasn't the reason of course. As always in the Mafia, what you see and hear is not what you necessarily get. Willie had to go because Vito Genovese was sick of waiting to take back the family he'd left in Frank's hands in 1937, when he did a runner to Italy to avoid a murder rap. He'd been back four years, and now, he was ready to make his move.
Then again maybe there was an even more basic reason Willie got the clip that morning. Some sources claim he had reneged on a drug deal, and the party of the first part decided he no longer needed the party of the second part.
Quarico Moretti grew up in East Harlem on East 108th Street, just up the block from Frank Costello who became one of his closest friends. His first, probably his only, legitimate job, was delivering milk for 25 cents a week. He tried his hand at prize-fighting but at 5'4'' he wasn't big enough or heavy enough to go anywhere there, so he got into crime like so many of his peers, and found he was really good at that. At some stage during this period of his life, people started calling him Willie Moore, a knick-name he came to use more and more often himself. He became so well established and trusted in the mob, that he was sent to meet and escort back to New York, Joe Bonanno, when he landed illegally in America The Federal Bureau of Narcotics kept tabs on Willie, and he was listed by them in 1931 as a major narcotics violator, with his own ID number: 138-A. By the time the Castellammarese War was under way, he was 36 years old and a seasoned veteran of the New York underworld. Along with Frank and Vito and big Al and little Tommy Luchese, he backed Masseria, then changed sides when the momentum shifted.
After the dust settled, he moved over to New Jersey and started what was to become one of the biggest gambling and sports betting operations in the state. He worked in conjunction with Longy Zwillman and Anthony Sabio aka 'Chicago Fats'.
In 1944, Joe Doto, another major player in the crime family then run by Charley Luciano, upped and left Brooklyn and moved across the Hudson and joined them. They creamed huge revenues from the numbers business and bookies working for them in factories, at the ports and offices in Bergen County, the New York wide spread wire system and the illegal casinos and 'sawdust' dice barns they set up in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Moretti expanded into legitimate areas: laundries, cigarette vending companies, trucking companies, wherever there seemed good opportunities to launder money.
He was a consummate gambler, to the point that he converted his family room in the big house down in Deal into a sports betting room, and would often hosts groups of other gamblers who would spend the day betting on horses and sports events.
Willie was a man of respect in every sense, important enough to attend the mob convention in May 1929 at Atlantic City, and fly down to Havana, Cuba to meet up with Lucky Luciano at the Hotel Nacional, having been one of the twenty or so senior mob figures who waved Lucky goodbye when he was deported on February 2nd, 1946 from New York. No doubt, if he'd lived long enough, the cops would have caught him running his chubby little legs off, through the woods at Apalachin.
That morning, Thursday, October 4th., Willie drove himself to the restaurant, parking his new, cream coloured Packard convertible outside the building. His chauffer, Harry Shepherd, had been loaned out to one of Willie's associates, Albert Anastasia, who'd claimed his own driver was sick, and he had to go for an X Ray appointment that morning to St. Mary's Hospital up in Passaic. He'd make sure he stayed there until the afternoon, thereby setting up the perfect alibi.
As Willie stepped from his car, a man came out of the restaurant. They shook hands, and went inside. There, three other men were waiting. According to the waitress on duty that day, Dorothy Novack, the group chatted awhile in Italian at a table by the window, then asked to see the menu. She went into the kitchen, and a moment later heard gun shots. Smart woman, she waited awhile, and when she came out, found Willie dead on the floor, lying next to one of the tables. It was 11.25 am.
The cops arrived, and the dicks wandered around, taking a few photos, smoking, chatting to themselves. They seemed more interested in the re-play on a radio, of the historic baseball pennant match fought out the day before, between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers, than the corpse they had come to inspect and evaluate. He was after all, just another guinea. Gone.
There was a cafe sign above the body, advertising the special of the day: Chicken in the Rough-$1.50
Willie lay in quiet repose on the black and white lino floor. His left arm was crooked, thick, ham fist holding onto his heart long stilled; his ankles neatly crossed, a hint of sock showing, his eyes closed to the violence of that final moment, as his killers shot him, face on, a mark of respect- he had the right to see what was happening- the blood pooling out from under his shattered head, one of those awful ties, soaked in red, crumpled over the shoulder of his open jacket. They killed him with respect because it was to be seen as an act of pity, putting a sick lion to sleep. It wasn't of course. Imprudent as he may have been, Willie died to satisfy ambition, or maybe revenge, rather than to ameliorate a sad case of loose lips.
The cops never caught the guys who did it, which in mob killings is almost a given. They found a couple of fedoras, carelessly left on tables by the gang, and one of them was traced to a dry cleaners on 6th Avenue in Manhattan, which interestingly enough, lay just across the street from the apartment of the brother of one John 'Johnny Roberts' Robilotto, a guy well know to the cops.
Forty seven year old Johnny Roberts was originally sponsored into the Luciano organization by Tony Bender, a shifty, double-dealing crew boss, close to Vito Genovese, but Costello vetoed him on the grounds his brother was a cop. Albert Anastasia took a liking to him and worked him into his own family. Johnny was therefore a big supporter of Big Al; probably when Al said 'jump' Johnny would have said 'how high?'
In due course, the police arrested one Joseph Li Calsi and charged him and Robilotto, but the evidence against them didn't stack up, and they were subsequently released. So did Johnny kill Willie and if so, why would Albert A. sanction this? He was supposedly a close friend and ally of Frank Costello, hated Genovese with a vengeance and logically would have done nothing to help him in his attempt to dethrone Frank, which the killing of Moretti would surely have helped along.
But Al had gone to all that trouble to establish an alibi so must have known what was going down that morning. Did 'The Commission' ratify it, as has been supposed. Who knows? Maybe they did, maybe not. If they did, then surely Frank Costello had to be one who voted against the motion, but got lost in the numbers.
It's complicated, as are most mob politics. Everyone involved is long dead and the mob don't keep minutes, so all we have is hypothesis, a dangerous quicksand to navigate when dealing with Cosa Nostra lore.
Some sources claim there was an 'open' contract out on Willie, so anyone could kill him if and when the opportunity arose. But for Anastasia to go to the trouble arranging that alibi, indicates that he knew the killing was going down that morning.
Did Al hope to move in and take over Willie's very lucrative operations. Hardly. There's was Willie's brother Salavator 'Solly' the right bower, to contend with and 'Johnny Caboos' the left bower, Willie's trusted number two. Both tough guys, and don't forget the heavy hitters in the crew who respected and supported the boss. How would they react? Another theory that went around, was that Anastasia, worried about Moretti's behaviour insofar as it might impact on his own safety, had him killed before Willie killed him. But why would Willie lend a guy his driver, then kill him?
The other thing that’s worth some thought is just who were the guys Willie had arranged to meet and for why? He was a busy man, pushed for time. He had this big lunch date with two of America's top movie stars, so this detour into Cliffside Park had to be important. What was it about? He surely knew one, if not all of the men waiting for him. What was so important that morning that couldn't wait until another day?
Shifting sands, broken mirrors, circles going nowhere.
The thing that is intriguing is why would gunmen from another mob be used? There were plenty of tough guys in the family over in Harlem and down on the west side. In the Gambino Family, there was a long history of bosses getting killed by their own guys-Mangano, Anastasia, Castellano. It makes more sense to use your own troops surely, easier to control and manage.
It's a puzzle, and it's logical to suppose the missing pieces will stay just that.
They gave him a funeral on October 9th. fit for the king of Bergen County- over 5000 people attending either the ceremony or internment- as his family and friends travelling in 75 cars, buried him in a $5000 coffin inside a sepulchre in Saint Michaels Cemetery, on South Main Street, in Hackensack. It sits there to-day, squat and gray, with a cross on the roof, towering over the tombstones that stretch away on all sides.
In life, Willie Moore never towered over anyone. He's made up for it now.
The place where Willie got whacked is still a place where you can go to eat. The building, on the corner of Palisade and Marion Avenue, was bought and renovated by the Esposito family from Amalfi, Italy, who turned it, sometime in the 1980's, into the Villa Amalfi, one of the better Italian restaurants in this part of New Jersey. There's music and good food, friendly service and the only thing that gets whacked there to-day is the steak.
© Thom L. Jones 2010
He went to church every Sunday in Deal, New Jersey, with his wife and three daughters. The kids in the neighbourhood called him 'cump.' He had a home there on five acres, where he raised prize ducks, that was valued at $400,000. By to-days standards, many millions. He was short and squat with thinning hair, brushed straight back and whenever you see a photo of him, he's wearing the most hideous, hand-painted silk ties.One of a kind was Willie (right).
Then one day, in October 1951, he arranged to have lunch with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, but before he could keep that appointment, he had another, with four guys in Joe's Elbow Room at 793 Palisades Avenue in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. Dino and Jerry never got to sit with the man that day. His other friends shot him a number of times and left him sprawled on his back, on the floor, dead and bleeding, sporting another awful tie.
He was a best friend to Frank Costello, who had been his best man at his wedding and a godfather to at least one of his children, led a gang of really tough guys, 60 at least, in the Garden State, with a lock on gambling that had made him and Frank very rich, was allegedly the under boss of the mob Frank controlled, now called the Genovese Family, never carried less than $2000 in his money roll, drove the best cars money could buy.
So why did it all go horribly wrong that crisp, clean morning of October 4th?
There was a rumour going around that he'd gone a little off his mind, more than a little really, because of the damage done by syphilis that he'd contacted in his younger days, and that he had to be put down before he did irreparable damage to Cosa Nostra, babbling away at the Kefauver Hearings, telling reporters little tit-bits of information, that kept stirring the pot on organized crime in New Jersey. That wasn't the reason of course. As always in the Mafia, what you see and hear is not what you necessarily get. Willie had to go because Vito Genovese was sick of waiting to take back the family he'd left in Frank's hands in 1937, when he did a runner to Italy to avoid a murder rap. He'd been back four years, and now, he was ready to make his move.
Then again maybe there was an even more basic reason Willie got the clip that morning. Some sources claim he had reneged on a drug deal, and the party of the first part decided he no longer needed the party of the second part.
Quarico Moretti grew up in East Harlem on East 108th Street, just up the block from Frank Costello who became one of his closest friends. His first, probably his only, legitimate job, was delivering milk for 25 cents a week. He tried his hand at prize-fighting but at 5'4'' he wasn't big enough or heavy enough to go anywhere there, so he got into crime like so many of his peers, and found he was really good at that. At some stage during this period of his life, people started calling him Willie Moore, a knick-name he came to use more and more often himself. He became so well established and trusted in the mob, that he was sent to meet and escort back to New York, Joe Bonanno, when he landed illegally in America The Federal Bureau of Narcotics kept tabs on Willie, and he was listed by them in 1931 as a major narcotics violator, with his own ID number: 138-A. By the time the Castellammarese War was under way, he was 36 years old and a seasoned veteran of the New York underworld. Along with Frank and Vito and big Al and little Tommy Luchese, he backed Masseria, then changed sides when the momentum shifted.
After the dust settled, he moved over to New Jersey and started what was to become one of the biggest gambling and sports betting operations in the state. He worked in conjunction with Longy Zwillman and Anthony Sabio aka 'Chicago Fats'.
In 1944, Joe Doto, another major player in the crime family then run by Charley Luciano, upped and left Brooklyn and moved across the Hudson and joined them. They creamed huge revenues from the numbers business and bookies working for them in factories, at the ports and offices in Bergen County, the New York wide spread wire system and the illegal casinos and 'sawdust' dice barns they set up in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Moretti expanded into legitimate areas: laundries, cigarette vending companies, trucking companies, wherever there seemed good opportunities to launder money.
He was a consummate gambler, to the point that he converted his family room in the big house down in Deal into a sports betting room, and would often hosts groups of other gamblers who would spend the day betting on horses and sports events.
Willie was a man of respect in every sense, important enough to attend the mob convention in May 1929 at Atlantic City, and fly down to Havana, Cuba to meet up with Lucky Luciano at the Hotel Nacional, having been one of the twenty or so senior mob figures who waved Lucky goodbye when he was deported on February 2nd, 1946 from New York. No doubt, if he'd lived long enough, the cops would have caught him running his chubby little legs off, through the woods at Apalachin.
That morning, Thursday, October 4th., Willie drove himself to the restaurant, parking his new, cream coloured Packard convertible outside the building. His chauffer, Harry Shepherd, had been loaned out to one of Willie's associates, Albert Anastasia, who'd claimed his own driver was sick, and he had to go for an X Ray appointment that morning to St. Mary's Hospital up in Passaic. He'd make sure he stayed there until the afternoon, thereby setting up the perfect alibi.
As Willie stepped from his car, a man came out of the restaurant. They shook hands, and went inside. There, three other men were waiting. According to the waitress on duty that day, Dorothy Novack, the group chatted awhile in Italian at a table by the window, then asked to see the menu. She went into the kitchen, and a moment later heard gun shots. Smart woman, she waited awhile, and when she came out, found Willie dead on the floor, lying next to one of the tables. It was 11.25 am.
The cops arrived, and the dicks wandered around, taking a few photos, smoking, chatting to themselves. They seemed more interested in the re-play on a radio, of the historic baseball pennant match fought out the day before, between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers, than the corpse they had come to inspect and evaluate. He was after all, just another guinea. Gone.
There was a cafe sign above the body, advertising the special of the day: Chicken in the Rough-$1.50
Willie lay in quiet repose on the black and white lino floor. His left arm was crooked, thick, ham fist holding onto his heart long stilled; his ankles neatly crossed, a hint of sock showing, his eyes closed to the violence of that final moment, as his killers shot him, face on, a mark of respect- he had the right to see what was happening- the blood pooling out from under his shattered head, one of those awful ties, soaked in red, crumpled over the shoulder of his open jacket. They killed him with respect because it was to be seen as an act of pity, putting a sick lion to sleep. It wasn't of course. Imprudent as he may have been, Willie died to satisfy ambition, or maybe revenge, rather than to ameliorate a sad case of loose lips.
The cops never caught the guys who did it, which in mob killings is almost a given. They found a couple of fedoras, carelessly left on tables by the gang, and one of them was traced to a dry cleaners on 6th Avenue in Manhattan, which interestingly enough, lay just across the street from the apartment of the brother of one John 'Johnny Roberts' Robilotto, a guy well know to the cops.
Forty seven year old Johnny Roberts was originally sponsored into the Luciano organization by Tony Bender, a shifty, double-dealing crew boss, close to Vito Genovese, but Costello vetoed him on the grounds his brother was a cop. Albert Anastasia took a liking to him and worked him into his own family. Johnny was therefore a big supporter of Big Al; probably when Al said 'jump' Johnny would have said 'how high?'
In due course, the police arrested one Joseph Li Calsi and charged him and Robilotto, but the evidence against them didn't stack up, and they were subsequently released. So did Johnny kill Willie and if so, why would Albert A. sanction this? He was supposedly a close friend and ally of Frank Costello, hated Genovese with a vengeance and logically would have done nothing to help him in his attempt to dethrone Frank, which the killing of Moretti would surely have helped along.
But Al had gone to all that trouble to establish an alibi so must have known what was going down that morning. Did 'The Commission' ratify it, as has been supposed. Who knows? Maybe they did, maybe not. If they did, then surely Frank Costello had to be one who voted against the motion, but got lost in the numbers.
It's complicated, as are most mob politics. Everyone involved is long dead and the mob don't keep minutes, so all we have is hypothesis, a dangerous quicksand to navigate when dealing with Cosa Nostra lore.
Some sources claim there was an 'open' contract out on Willie, so anyone could kill him if and when the opportunity arose. But for Anastasia to go to the trouble arranging that alibi, indicates that he knew the killing was going down that morning.
Did Al hope to move in and take over Willie's very lucrative operations. Hardly. There's was Willie's brother Salavator 'Solly' the right bower, to contend with and 'Johnny Caboos' the left bower, Willie's trusted number two. Both tough guys, and don't forget the heavy hitters in the crew who respected and supported the boss. How would they react? Another theory that went around, was that Anastasia, worried about Moretti's behaviour insofar as it might impact on his own safety, had him killed before Willie killed him. But why would Willie lend a guy his driver, then kill him?
The other thing that’s worth some thought is just who were the guys Willie had arranged to meet and for why? He was a busy man, pushed for time. He had this big lunch date with two of America's top movie stars, so this detour into Cliffside Park had to be important. What was it about? He surely knew one, if not all of the men waiting for him. What was so important that morning that couldn't wait until another day?
Shifting sands, broken mirrors, circles going nowhere.
The thing that is intriguing is why would gunmen from another mob be used? There were plenty of tough guys in the family over in Harlem and down on the west side. In the Gambino Family, there was a long history of bosses getting killed by their own guys-Mangano, Anastasia, Castellano. It makes more sense to use your own troops surely, easier to control and manage.
It's a puzzle, and it's logical to suppose the missing pieces will stay just that.
They gave him a funeral on October 9th. fit for the king of Bergen County- over 5000 people attending either the ceremony or internment- as his family and friends travelling in 75 cars, buried him in a $5000 coffin inside a sepulchre in Saint Michaels Cemetery, on South Main Street, in Hackensack. It sits there to-day, squat and gray, with a cross on the roof, towering over the tombstones that stretch away on all sides.
In life, Willie Moore never towered over anyone. He's made up for it now.
The place where Willie got whacked is still a place where you can go to eat. The building, on the corner of Palisade and Marion Avenue, was bought and renovated by the Esposito family from Amalfi, Italy, who turned it, sometime in the 1980's, into the Villa Amalfi, one of the better Italian restaurants in this part of New Jersey. There's music and good food, friendly service and the only thing that gets whacked there to-day is the steak.
© Thom L. Jones 2010
-
Comment by DaLenosgirl on December 27, 2010 at 5:06pm -
My father lived down the street from Joe's Elbow Room.. He told me this story as a kid which began my fascination with the mafia. Wiseguys were part of the scenery in Cliffside Park. My father knew Joe Adonis and some of the other wiseguys because they used to run the numbers games in town. My father's uncle owned a pool hall that would serve as a hang out for the locals and some of these wiseguys. My other uncle was the police chief in the next town. That is just how things worked out in those days.
-
Comment by Jack Coneys on August 19, 2011 at 11:55am -
The reason I joined this site is to correct the above article. I don't know if Moretti ever lived in Deal, NJ, but, I do know that he was living in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ when he was killed. The funeral was from Corpus Christi Church in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. Sinatra and Nancy lived near him at one time. When he was appearing at the Paramount in NYC. There were underground tunnels between Willie's house and his men. My son had been thru them with the Andretta boy (now deceased), but, they are all filled in now. One of my friends was the altar boy at his daughter's wedding. Another friend had been in Willie's basement and confirmed his gambling set-up down there, as you said in the article. I was a freshman in St. Cecilia High School, Englewood, NJ when Joe Doto was a senior and Humberto Anastasia was a sophomore. Joe was like his father...voted best looking, class romance, etc. Alledgedly followed his father into the business and eventually died of a venerial disease. Don't know if that is true. Humberto, on the other hand, did not follow his father. Went to school in Ohio, became a lawyer, is married, lives a clean life, and still attends his high school reunions. He was devastated when his father was killed. I believe that Buddy Hackett eventually bought and lived in the Anastasia house in Fort Lee, NJ
-
Comment by Leonard Conforti on August 21, 2011 at 10:31am -
Good 4 "U" --my reasoms as well; 2 much bull--not enough facts. I thing people do not seem to get it--there is good and bad in everyone or everything and the true measure of a man is his choice to be or not to be a Man's Man. No-one else's--so long as he can live with his choices and himself if there is another judge He is not here on this planet at the moment!
-
Comment by henry thomas on September 6, 2011 at 2:15pm
-
bonnano had to be down with it ! he was running all over the world at that time . maggadino was the senior boss . they conspired together . he had anastasia killed too .he was convenietly out of the county. yeah right ! . bonnano form the permindex check that . he was global ! he didn't need the u.s.a. he had the world .
-
Comment by Leonard Conforti on September 6, 2011 at 4:08pm
-
Not 4 nothing henry thomas but I do not get your drift no more than you seem to get the drift that no-one needed the co-operation of any-one to kill Willie M, including Bonnono, that is outside of the immediate family-boss that is making a decision to render a member of his own family a potential victim. The only acception is when one is stepping outside one's owm family seeking to make one the potential victim. That is when a table is necessary between two or more bosses of a family. Finally, in this regard, when a boss of a family decides he like to make another boss the victim, that is, when the idea is to murder anoither boss of a familly, in such circumstances, the latter needs an approval from the Commission. Certainly politics plays a hand in the decision to do in another but, that said, the ultimate decision-maker in fact is the boss of the family itself and no-one else can or needs to be a factor in that decision save 4 the boss himself who may choose to dicuss it with another. Yes, the boss, is the boss, of his family--period.
-
Comment by henry thomas on September 10, 2011 at 6:04pm
-
so how do you explain him not getting killed by the commission . bonnano i mean ,gambino wanted to kill him .giancana also . and they were the absolute leaders of chicago and new york . cmon . bonnano even help set up the sicilian MOB there's something too this BONNANO/ MAGADDINO mafia framework. PERMINDEX !!!
-
Comment by henry thomas on September 10, 2011 at 6:39pm
-
AND THEY KILLED GENVESE CAPO LARRY BIELLO AFTER BONNANO FOUND OUT HE SNITCHED TO COLUMBO .AND BY THE WAY WHEN GAMBINO DIED WHO WAS WATCHING HIM. SAMMY THE BULL
-
Comment by Leonard Conforti on September 12, 2011 at 1:37pm
-
not 4 nothing but u pose a lot of ?s with few facts 4 your opinions. I'm not sure that I should dignify your conclusory opinions with a detailed argument? Neither of us are privy 2 the decision makers choices. What we are privy 2 is the rules of the game. You do not address my explanation with any sought of factual argument to say that you disagree with them you merely presuppose facts that are not in evidence. Willie was killed by his family boss's order and no-one else's. Otherwsie there would have had 2 b retribution. The same is true w/ any other character u mentioned accept when it is that of one of the Bosses themselves. Where do you get support for the conclusion that Bonnano killed someone from another family I cannot fathom? Your reasoning excludes the very idea of a commission and individual ruleship over one's own family? I just am dazzled by your unidentifed reasoning?
-
Comment by henry thomas on September 15, 2011 at 10:49pm
-
I must respectfully answer you . YOU HAVE HELPED ME A GREAT DEAL IN MY THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE . Can you please explain the PERMINDEX SCHEME .DIDNT BONNANO ESTABLISH THE ITALIAN MAFIA ? WHY WAS HE AND MOST OF HIS BOGATA REPRESENTED IN 1957 AT THE HOTEL IN ITALY ? I WAS TOLD HE WAS ALWAYS IN GENOVESE'S EAR , IS THAT TRUE ? DID GALANTE WANT TO BE BOSS OF THE ANASTASIA FAMILY AFTER ALBERT WAS KILLED ? AND WHY WASN'T HE KILLED AFTER HE WAS GONNA KILL GAMBINO AND LUCCHESE ? I HEARD THAT HE AND HIS COUSIN IN BUFFALO WERE THE REAL RULER'S ?WHY DID GAMBINO HAVE TO INCLUDE GALANTE IN THE FRAME- UP IN ' 59' . I HEARD THEY WERE ALL AFRAID OF HIM . THAT TIME PERIOD IS MOST INTERESTING TO ME
-
Comment by Leonard Conforti on September 16, 2011 at 11:59am
-
Hey. At the outset, before I do address your ?s I must say that you do appear to have a "thirst for knowledge" with regard to the Life of Organized Crime; which is something I too had since I was a little boy some sixty-five years ago when 1st I observe these characters sometimes living in my familly's basement and quite often when I was listening intently in on their conversations. However, after having lived and experienced the Life for all those many, many years I came away disappointed, for the most part, by the reality thereof. Turning now to your 1st ? the answer is No. Bonnano did not establish the "italian Mafia." though his own writings indicate that he regarded himself as a man of respect who is otherwise known as a member of the "Sicilian Mafia." Which leds me to address the misconception that the Mafia is one and the same as Costa Nostra. Its not for nothing that the latter term translates "Our Thing." Indeed, from my own experience, I saw and heard one Sicilian Underboss say, in response to my ?, "How come they don't have your class?", his reply, that "It's because there're not Sicilian." As for your 2nd ?, concerning the 1957 meeting in the hotel in Italy, at best I could make an educated guess that in invovled the importation of drugs as his family, no matter how much thou doest protest, was a key ingrieant in the smuggling of those drugs into this county. As for his always being in Genovese's ear you must remember that to make policy on the Commission one needed the majority of votes to carry the day and inasmuch as the marriages-both time honoured and through ceremonial coupling of their children-both the Gambino/Lucchese and Profaci/Bonnano familys resulted in a 2/2 tie they needed the swing vote to do carry the day. With regard to Galante, whom I had occasions to observe up front, he was a tyrant. But he was a Bonnano and, therefore, he could not be the boss of any other family except the one he belonged too and then only with the agreement of the captains thereof. Indeed, when he came home he took the reins of that family without either the permission of the majority of the captains or sanction of the Commission and you see what that got him. He operated with violence and accordingly he died in violence. As for why Bonnano wasn't killed would that any of us could possible know the inner working of that Commission back in the day when it was practiced what it preached with regard to talking about it after the fact. Finally, Gambino, to my personel knowledge, never had "to include Gealante in the frame-up in '59'" because, at best, at that time and place, Gambino was himself no more powerful than that of anyone or another powers that be. Suffice it to say that underworld practiced what it preached-omerta for the most part until Lucky wrote his memoirs. If just half of what he said is true, they were indeed a treacherous lot.
© 2013 Created by Gangsters Inc..
You need to be a member of Gangsters Inc. to add comments!
Join Gangsters Inc.